Verbivoracious Festschrift #6: the Oulipo

The sixth Verbivoracious Festschrift is a brobdingnagian spectacular fêting the famous workshop of potential literature, The Oulipo, now entering its 57th year. Our contributors were invited to write a piece of fiction, an essay, a poem, or any other hybrid, and choose their own constraints. The results have yielded a marvellous sprawl of oulipian homage, from petite poetic tributes to Queneau, to long lipogrammatic bows to Perec. In this issue: Philip Terry’s take on Perec’s I Remember, Warren Motte’s literary abecedaries, David Bellos’s iconoclastic essay on Hugo and Perec, two chapters from Jeff Bursey’s lipogrammic novel Ennead, Louis Bury’s anticipatory blurbs, Michael Leong’s take on the Oulipo’s ever-expanding influence, Tom Jenks and Jeanelle D’Alessandro’s satirical N+7s, Andriana Minou’s typographically playful novella Hypnotic Labyrinth, John Peck’s murder mystery in 100 sentences, poetry from Doug Nufer and Stephen Frug, Marc Lapprand’s view on evolution and The Oulipo, a slew of palindromes, lists, papers, and fancies from Pablo Ruiz, and many other pieces. The issue concludes with a wholly original work of sustained constraint: Christine Brooke-Rose’s first novel rewritten with her grammatical constraints and polylingual puns reinstated. The sixth issue is our fattest feast yet, and a must for Oulipo enthusiasts. More here.